Behold, my favorite luscious dessert! This cheesecake recipe hails from the Basque region of Spain—specifically, from a restaurant called La Viña, where fresh cheesecakes line the walls and smell like heaven.

Honestly, I’m not sure why this cheesecake (tarta de queso in Spanish) is called Basque cheesecake over here. We should call it La Viña cheesecake or Santiago Rivera’s cheesecake to give full credit to the man who created the concept in 1990.

We enjoyed the real deal on our honeymoon in San Sebastián in 2019. We spent the evening wandering through the old part of town, sampling pintxos and sipping marvelous inexpensive white wine everywhere we went, as you do in San Sebastián. I insisted that we make room for the magical, mythical cheesecake at La Viña, so we followed our noses around the corner until we found it.

Fast-forward a few years, and we’re sleep-deprived with a baby at home. My husband brought home a surprise Basque cheesecake from a local shop. We’ve been obsessively recreating it at home ever since, trying different methods and proportions. I’m super excited to share the perfected recipe with you today.

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Craving something sweet? These baked apples are a delightful dessert featuring seasonal fruit. They taste like an apple crisp but look much cuter.

This baked apple recipe is all in the technique, but it’s not complicated. I’ll walk you through it below.

You’ll need a short list of ingredients to make this recipe—apples, oats, coconut or brown sugar, optional pecans or walnuts, and butter. We’ll add a little bit of cinnamon and salt to take the flavor over the top.

Serve these wholesome baked apples with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or creamy yogurt. They’re sweet enough to taste like a treat, but wholesome at the same time. Serve your baked apples as a special dessert, or make them as a fun weekend project!

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This blueberry cake is my official summertime dessert. I hope it becomes yours, too. It’s tender, fully loaded with blueberries, and simple to make—no mixer required. It’s a dream!

This blueberry cake recipe is naturally sweetened with maple syrup, which makes it extra delicious. Thanks to the blueberries and maple syrup, it’s nicely sweet but not over the top. Some cakes are so sweet that they give me a stomachache, but this one is just right.

This cake will absolutely be a hit at your Fourth of July festivities. Serve it as a “snacking cake” or make it celebration-worthy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. I’ve even enjoyed a slice with yogurt for breakfast.

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You’re going to love this strawberry smoothie. This recipe is cold, creamy and satisfying, and its nutty strawberry flavor is truly crave-worthy.

In their most basic form, these strawberry smoothies require just four ingredients—frozen strawberries, frozen bananas, almond milk and almond butter.

This smoothie recipe tastes like a strawberry milkshake, and you can make it for breakfast! I’ll be sipping on these pink drinks all summer, and I hope the recipe becomes a staple in your home as well.

If you ask me, smoothies should be super simple. I don’t want to pull a bunch of ingredients out of my fridge and pantry every morning just for a smoothie. I am not a morning person! Plus, these smoothies are easy to whip up in the afternoon or after dinner if you get a craving for a sweet treat.

You can change up the recipe by adding flax or oats for a nutrition boost, or a light drizzle of maple syrup to make them taste even more dessert-like. I’m plenty satisfied with the four-ingredient formula, though, and I think you will be, too!

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These lava cakes are rich and decadent, with cakey outsides and irresistibly gooey chocolate centers. They’re like a warm mug of hot chocolate in romantic dessert form.

These molten chocolate lava cakes look and taste impressive, but they’re pretty quick and easy to make. You don’t need any special equipment—no mixer, just a couple of bowls and a whisk. Unlike most lava cakes, you don’t even need ramekins to make this recipe. I scaled it down to fit perfectly in your muffin tin!

Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten popularized the lava cake in the 1990s, so this recipe concept has been around for a while. I’m excited to report that the ingredients are simple (you probably have them already) and the muffin tin technique works like a charm.

This recipe yields two small lava cakes, perfect for two individual servings. They’re rich enough that you could also serve four people who are willing to share. I never manage to polish one off on my own.

You’ll find step-by-step photos and a detailed recipe below. Let’s make some lava cakes!

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How about a fruity treat? On a summer evening, there’s not much better than a warm homemade crisp with cold vanilla ice cream. This mixed berry crisp is the perfect use for those wonderful in-season berries. It’s easy to make (far less fussy than a pie) and just as good.

You can make this berry crisp recipe with any combination of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries or raspberries—use all four or just a couple. Or, use it as a template for a single-berry crisp (here’s a more straightforward blueberry crisp recipe). You can’t go wrong.

This mixed berry crisp is the latest addition to my growing collection of crisp recipes on the blog. Like most of the others, this recipe just so happens to be gluten free, easily made vegan, and naturally sweetened. Depending on your standards, this crisp could definitely qualify as healthy.

I love the combination of oats and almond flour in the topping—the result is golden and crisp on top, and tender underneath. The topping keeps well to enjoy leftovers for several days. I like to eat it for breakfast with plain Greek yogurt. Why not?

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Craving a refreshing summer treat? An easy little project? Something sweet, but not too sweet? These minty pineapple ice pops are just the ticket. They’re made with just two ingredients—pineapple and mint!

These popsicles are naturally sweetened with fruit alone. I actually make my pops with frozen pineapple, which is easy and inexpensive.

This recipe was inspired by a popsicle we enjoyed on a hot summer afternoon in Nashville last year. I insisted that we stop at Las Paletas for popsicles, even though our bellies were still full from lunch.

As our popsicles dripped onto the porch in the heat, I made a mental note to make similar popsicles at home. We can’t hop over to Nashville right now, but at least we can enjoy some cold pops in the backyard!

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These chocolate crispy bars are a modern, abstract rendition of scotcheroos—the treats printed on Rice Krispies boxes in the 1960s. If you squint a little bit, the pecans might remind you of butterscotch.

You could call these sort-of scotcheroos, or mostly-naturally-sweetened scotcheroos, or just plain delicious. Somehow, I landed on Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Bars.

I always get a hankering for Reese’s peanut butter eggs around Easter time. They’re my favorite. This crispy-crackly, honey-sweetened, peanut butter-and-chocolate recipe is fully satisfying my Reese’s craving.

These no-bake treats are easy to make, and they’re ready after a two-hour rest in the refrigerator. If you have a box of brown rice crisps (or Rice Krispies, for that matter), you’re in luck!

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We’re coming in hot with a very last-minute Thanksgiving dessert recipe! The idea came to me when I was exasperated by yet another failed attempt to make maple-sweetened pumpkin pie. I opened the refrigerator and spied some leftover pumpkin purée next to a block of cream cheese.

Here we are, with no-bake treats that taste like pumpkin pie and cheesecake had a baby. They work because we serve them in individual cups, so they don’t have to retain a sliceable shape.

These pumpkin treats feature a mousse-like blend of pumpkin purée, Greek yogurt, and pumpkin spice. We top the pumpkin base with a creamy, tangy blend of cream cheese and Greek yogurt. Each layer is naturally sweetened with maple syrup.

Both mixtures will thicken up if you have time to chill these for an hour or more in the fridge. Top your cups off with a simple blend of toasted pecans and graham cracker crumbles, and you’re ready to go.

Happy Thanksgiving from Cookie and Kate! If you’re looking for more last-minute Thanksgiving recipes or the perfect gift, we have you covered.

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Finally! Meet my tested and perfected carrot cake recipe. I’ve been working on this carrot cake for a long time, and I’m so happy to report that I’ve finally nailed it.

I was hoping to publish the recipe in time for Valentine’s Day, then Mother’s Day. Here we are, just in time for Father’s Day and your summer birthdays! I hope you have a carrot cake lover in your life, because this cake will make him or her very happy.

This homemade carrot cake would be perfect for any celebratory occasion. It’s exactly what I want my carrot cake to be: delicious and moist, gently spiced with cinnamon and ginger, infused with flecks of fresh carrots, and covered in luscious cream cheese frosting. It’s the best.

This cake is also simple to make from scratch with wholesome ingredients. You can easily make it in an afternoon, with plenty of time to kill while the cake cools.

I’m often intimidated by layer cakes, so if I can make this cake, I know you can, too. Ready?!

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